Call for ANC’s Integrity Commission to probe Pravin Gordhan

A member of the ANC has filed a complaint against Former Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan with the party’s Integrity Commission.

In a letter addressed to the commission on Monday, Phaphano Phasha, an ANC member of the Brian Bunting Branch in Johannesburg, said Gordhan must be flagged as a risk to the party’s reputation and be brought before the commission.

This is owing to an adverse finding by the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane released on Friday, which had said Gordhan had acted "unlawfully" when he approved retirement benefits for former South African Revenue Services (SARS) deputy commissioner, Ivan Pillay.

"To ensure that the commission continues to be seen as acting consistently, I am therefore calling on the commission to flag comrade Gordhan as a risk to the reputation of the ANC and subpoena him to explain himself and clear his name like other leaders of the ANC such as deputy president David Mabuza has done," said Phasha.

Gordhan, who also sits on the ANC's national executive committee, was criminally charged in relation to Pillay's early retirement approval in October 2016 but the charges were later withdrawn.

Pasha, further told the Integrity Commission that Gordhan must refrain from persistently and continuously attacking the office of the Public Protector.

"It is inconvincible that a member of the national executive committee of the ANC and of cabinet can be allowed to attack such an institution with the impunity and relentlessly, without being called into order," said Phasha.

This follows Gordhan's lawyers filing a review application asking the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to set aside a report by Mkhwebane that found he flouted the Constitution.

Several organisations have also taken a swipe at Mkhwebane and questioned her credibility. They have also called for her to be axed from her position.

The EFF however, have come out in defence of Mkhwebane and accused Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, Freedom Under Law, trade union federation Cosatu, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Congress of the People, of attacking the Chapter 9 Constitution by calling for her removal.

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